Rural is the new urban

TED@UPS asks: What if the predictions on urbanization trends are wrong?

It’s a trend that started happening centuries ago. People moved away from their countryside farms and into the cities to take part in the Industrial Revolution. While many think the urbanization process will continue, Julio Gil suggests people may start moving in the opposite direction.

People moved to the city not because they loved the city itself, but for the things they could have there.

Julio has spent his career focused on engineering and innovation. He has helped to pioneer new technologies for drones, 3D printing, and wearable technologies, earning six patents along the way.

As he explains in his TED@UPS talk, it is innovative technologies such as these that will allow people to live and work in peaceful rural settings again—without missing out on the conveniences and opportunities that drew them into the city in the first place.

Julio asks his audience: If you could hold virtual meetings, get deliveries by drone, and have a rich social life in the country, would you still want to live in a city? Or will you reverse the urbanization trend?